Toshiyuki Atokawa vs. Jose Luis Cotton 3R
Masaki Kawachi vs. Jerry Harris 3R
Atsushi Tamaki vs. Brian Joseph Martin 3R
Nobuaki Kakuda vs. Gary Klugiewicz 4R. If you're only familiar with Nobuaki Kakuda as an aging/retired fighter taking a paycheck to hang around with Inoki, lending New Japan's works some shoot credibility, he's amazingly fast here at 30, and his ability to pull off high level techniques & combos really sets him apart from the others. Unfortunately, his opponent Gary Klugiewicz comes to understand this pretty quickly, and takes away Kakuda's kicking game & most of our fun by spending the rest of the match grabbing & holding him. Kakuda an entertaining match highlighted by Kakuda flooring Klugiewicz with a sweet jumping knee in the extra round.
Toshiyuki Yanagisawa vs. Chuck Chism 3R
Shinken Shirabidori (true blade grab) Exhibition. Theoretically, if you practice enough karate, you can even defeat a samurai. They actually had some Tiger Jeet Singh sort of action going on, except the samurai actually tried to use the blade of his sword rather than putz around endlessly with the handle, with the karate master seemingly showing every possible way to thwart him, climaxing by stopping a lethal blow sandwiching the blade (which they claim is not blunt or gimmicked) between his two palms and taking the opponent out with a front kick.
Masaaki Satake vs. Willie Williams 3R
Ist, 2nd, and 3rd round highlights
3rd Round: Masaaki Satake vs. Gerard Gordeau
4th round highlights
Quarterfinals
Toshiyuki Atokawa vs. Minoru Fujita
Taiei Kin vs. Yoshihisa Tagami
Junzo Tamae vs. Nobumitsu Takazawa
Gerard Gordeau vs. Adam Watt
Semifinals
Toshiyuki Atokawa vs. Yoshihisa Tagami
Nobumitsu Takazawa vs. Adam Watt
3rd Place Match: Yoshihisa Tagami vs. Nobumitsu Takazawa
Final: Toshiyuki Atokawa vs. Adam Watt
57 man gloved Karate tournament with unprecidented 10,000,000-en in prize money featuring Masaaki Satake, Taiei Kin, Yoshinori Nishi, Ryuji Murakama, & Noriyuki Inaba
RINGS Rule: Akira Maeda vs. Koichiro Kimura 5:00
Muay Thai & RINGS Rule: Pieter Smit vs. Mikoki Ichihara R3 2:24. Good match.
RINGS Rule: Herman Renting vs. Yoshinori Nishi 5R
RINGS Rule: Naoyuki Taira vs. Eric Edlenbos R1 1:33
Kickboxing Rule: Rob Kaman vs. Adam Watt R2 2:18
Full Contact Karate Rule: Willie Williams vs. Nobuaki Kakuda 3R
Karate & Kickboxing Mixed Rule: Maurice Smith vs. Masaaki Satake 4R
David Taylor vs. Fabien Khodry 7R. Good match.
W.K.A. Full Contact Super Light Heavyweight Title: Mark Russell vs. Rob Kaman R2.
Maurice Smith vs. Peter Aerts 9R UD
Karate Semi-contact Special Rule: Yoshinori Nishi vs. Greg Douglas 3R
Seido Karate Rule: Andy Hug vs. Toshiyuki Yanagisawa 5R. Good match.
Karate Glove Rule: Yoshihisa Tagami vs. Andrei Artamonov 3R 1:58.
Karate Glove & Semi-contact Rule: Manson Gibson vs. Taiei Kin 4R.Good match.
Karate Glove & Semi-contact Rule: Dale "Apollo" Cook vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa 4R. Good match.
Karate Glove Rule: Masaaki Satake vs. Ahmad Muhammad 1R 1:57.
European Lightweight Title Match: Corrine Geeris vs. Bettina Volker R6 of 6
Bolem Belaini vs. Michael Lieuwfat R7 of 7
Vincent Vyent vs. Darrell Simmons 3R of 5
European Muay Thai Middleweight Title Match: Antoine Druif vs. Habib Bensalah 3R of 5
IKBF World Junior Welterweight Title Match: Stuart Ballantine vs. Iwan Meenis 7R
Mohamed Kassrioui vs. Theo Wielsen 3R
IKBF World Title Match: Rick Verheyen vs. Reid Poljo 9R
Ramon Dekkers vs. Gilbert Ballantine 5R
Muay Thai World Heavyweight Title Match: Peter Aerts vs. Frank Lobman R3 1:31. Good match.
digest of Karate tournament bouts. Andy Hug vs. Gozen Morita, Dale “Apollo” Cook vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa, Nobuaki Kakuda vs. Andy Hug, Andy Hug vs. Minoru Fujita, Andy Hug vs. Shuji Suzuki, etc
Exhibition Match: Kyoko Kamikaze vs. Saskia Van Rijswijk
Special One Match: Yoshihisa Tagami vs. Stephen "Super Kick" Vick 5R
Stan The Man vs. Adam Watt R1
Peter Aerts vs. Masaaki Satake 5R
'92 Karate World Cup Final: Andy Hug vs. Taiei Kin 3R
Matches include
2R:
Taiei Kin vs. Takanari Muto
Katsunari Inagaki (Katsuomi Inagaki) vs. Katsuhiro Yoshiyama
Ryuji Murakami vs. Rikisei Fujihashi
Masaaki Satake vs. Shinji Sakumoto
Ryushi Yanagisawa vs. Yoshihiro Ishikawa
Yoshihisa Tagami vs. Osamu Oye
Yuki Ishikawa vs. Osamu Kawabe
Masaaki Satake vs. Shinni Sakamoto
3R:
Taiei Kin vs. Katsunari Inagaki
Atsushi Onari vs. Koji Kawazoe
Ryuji Murakami vs. Takayuki Shiraki
Ryushi Yanagisawa vs. Seiji Ishihara
Yoshihisa Tagami vs. Hiroaki Shomea
Masaaki Satake vs. Yuki Ishikawa
4R:
Taiei Kin vs. Takashi Sugiyama
Ryuji Murakami vs. Atsushi Tamaki
Ryushi Yanagisawa vs. Yoshinobu Hiraoka
Toshiyuki Atokawa vs. Kuniaki Yagono
Yoshihisa Tagami vs. Takeshi Sakatome
Masaaki Satake vs. Yoshihiro Hikita
Quarterfinals
Taiei Kin vs. Koji Kawazoe
Ryushi Yanagisawa vs. Ryuji Murakami
Toshiyuki Atokawa vs. Yoshihisa Tagami
Masaaki Satake vs. Wataru Uchida
Semifinal: Taiei Kin vs. Ryuji Murakami
Semifinal: Masaaki Satake vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa
3rd Place: Ryuji Murakami vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa
Final: Masaaki Satake vs. Taiei Kin
Allen Blokland vs. Cliff Adrianis
Dutch Middleweight Title Match: Marvin Irion vs. Theo Wirsen
Corrine Geeris vs. Saskia Habraken 5R
Dutch Jr. Welterweight Title Match: Ahmed Gounane vs. Vincent Vain
Gilbert Valentini vs. Evan Meenis
Dutch Middleweight Title Match: Faizel Reding vs. Hassan Etaki
Boulem Belaini vs. Doris
European Light Heavyweight Title Match: Rik van de Vathorst vs. Bernard Cherry
Peter Aerts vs. Maurice Smith R4 2:07
Junji Kageishi vs. Yoshihisa Tagami R1 1:46. Tagami was so active and effective that Kageishi could hardly get a blow in.
Taiei Kin vs. Haruo Wada R1 0:59. Same deal as the first fight except the two knockdowns were in the first minute.
Adam Watt vs. Shinjiro Aoki R1 0:40. Even quicker than the first two, as this time it only took one knockdown.
Sogo Kakutogi Rule: Nobuaki Kakuda vs. Yoshinori Nishi 15:00. Bare knuckle shootfight. Nishi has the reach and the grappling skill, so Kakuda doesn't have many options, but he gives his all and tests the skills he has. Full time.
Exhibition: Chizumi Yoshida vs. Peko Chan Yuri 2R. They emptied the tank in the first 90 seconds then it was Yoshida chasing Yuri down for the duration.
Sogo Kakutogi Rule: Katsumi Usuda vs. Naoyuki Taira 14:03. Taira definitely had the advantage in standup. Usuda wanted to take it to the mat, but had no real way of getting it there. When it got there, we found out that he was no match there either. Usuda was badly outclassed and Taira wasn't able to connect with the entertaining strikes, so it wasn't a particularly entertaining blowout. It was more like Usuda's neck was there for the taking, so Taira eventually tapped him twice.
Stan The Man vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa R5 2:22. An obvious mismatch, but Atokawa gave it his all, and was able to make it difficult for Stan, though he clearly didn't have enough firepower to threaten him. I thought Stan would handle Atokawa, but that wasn't the case at all. He was really pressing because Atokawa couldn't make him pay, and this was where Atokawa was finally getting hit, but Stan also tired himself out doing this, allowing Atokawa back into the fight to an extent before Stan dominated the 5th. Good match.
Masaaki Satake vs. Chris Brannel R2 1:39. This should be one of those cult matches like Takada vs. Berbick. It was absolutely hilarious because Brannel was so scared. He went down once because he thought Satake was ready to hit him! Brannel was always backing away or going for illegal takedowns, and kept going down, whether the blow connected or not. The fans kept laughing at him. It was so embarrassing the ref eventually had to stop it. Seemed to be Brannel's way of taking a dive.
K-1 GRAND PRIX '93 1st Round:
Masaaki Satake vs. Todd "Hollywood" Hays R2 0:45
Branco Cikatic vs. Changpuek Kiatsongrit R1 2:35
Maurice Smith vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa 3R
Ernesto Hoost vs. Peter Aerts 3R
K-1 GRAND PRIX '93 Semifinals:
Branco Cikatic vs. Masaaki Satake R3 0:45
Ernesto Hoost vs. Maurice Smith R3 1:18
Special Match - Karate: Nobuaki Kakuda vs. Andy Hug R2 1:26
Final: Branco Cikatic vs. Ernesto Hoost R1 2:49
K-1 GRAND PRIX '93 1st Round:
Masaaki Satake vs. Todd "Hollywood" Hays R2 0:45
Branco Cikatic vs. Changpuek Kiatsongrit R1 2:35
Maurice Smith vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa 3R
Ernesto Hoost vs. Peter Aerts 3R Good match
Exhibition Match - RINGS: Wataru Uchida vs. Naoyuki Taira
Special Match - Karate: Taiei Kin vs. Michael Thompson 3R
K-1 GRAND PRIX '93 Semifinals:
Branco Cikatic vs. Masaaki Satake R3 0:45
Ernesto Hoost vs. Maurice Smith R3 1:18
Special Match - Karate: Nobuaki Kakuda vs. Andy Hug R2 1:26
Final: Branco Cikatic vs. Ernesto Hoost R1 2:49
Highlights of major Satake matches & 5/6/93 undercard plus Satake vs. Nishi
Sogo Kakutogi Rule: Naoyuki Taira vs. Atsushi Tamaki 5:31
Spirit Karate Rule: Sam Greco vs. Keisuke Nakagawa R2 1:06. Greco's K-1 debut. Nakagawa was getting destroyed and eventually tried to call time out because he was "injured", but the ref didn't do anything so Greco kicked Nakagawa when he turned his back on him. This further injured Nakagawa, leading to the dr stop.
Spirit Karate Rule: Michael Thompson vs. Nobuaki Kakuda R1 0:47
Spirit Karate Rule: Andy Hug vs. Minoru Fujita (not the pro wrestler) 3R. Pretty good action despite Fujita mainly keeping away. Fujita never had a chance, but kept damage to a minimum.
Bobby "The Bruiser" Colinson vs. Yoshiaki Miyoshi 2R
UKF World Super Welterweight Title Match: Darrell "The Heat" Eckles vs. Yoshihisa Tagami R3 3:00. Eckels just couldn't deal with the clinch, and that kept him from fighting his fight after R1. Pretty good.
UKF World Cruiserweight Title Match: Lavelle Robinson vs. Adam Watt 5R. Watt had the height and reach advantage. Not a great fight because Robinson mostly stayed away, but it was competitive.
UKF World Light Heavyweight Title Decision Match: Changpuek Kiatsongrit vs. Taiei Kin 5R. These two didn't waste any strikes. They measured their opponent then unleashed one or a combination of their hardest. Brutal and effective offense. These two have great chins because they took a lot of high impact blows. Kiatsongrit controlled with his left kicks, but Kin was never ready to lose, he just lacked a strategy to actually win. Very good fight.
UKF World Heavyweight Title Decision Match: Masaaki Satake vs. Don Nakaya Nielsen R1 2:30. This was the most dominant performance I've seen from Satake, though Nielson could barely keep his balance even before Satake started hitting him.
Andy Hug vs. Ryuji Murakami 1R 0:39. Fantastic KO by Hug, faking te spinning savate then dropping Murakami with his patented kakato otoshi.
Lucia Rijker vs. Kyoko Kamikaze 2R 0:44. Kamikaze was never able to get going. Rijker kept the pressure on, striking whenver Kamikaze wasn't blocking. The final knockdown seemed more toward a slip as Kamikaze was trying an uraken, but it was academic by that point anyway. Shinobu Kandori presented Rijker with a trophy.
Phothai Chorwaikool vs. Taiek Kin 5R. Kin is one of the most deceptive fighters, which is why he has more success with the uraken than any real fighter I can think of. He seems to be backing off then launches a quick attack if his opponent doesn't step forward. He's neither a stalker nor a counterpuncher, just kind of hovering at the end of his range and looking of an opening. His Thai opponent Chorwaikool is more similar to Kiatsongrit though not as fierce and intimidating, as he's not real active but strikes with accuracy and authority. Good, close fight. Kin has superb stamina, and when he gets deep into a fight that makes it seem as if he wants it more. Good fight.
Adam Watt vs. Gerard Gordeau 2R 2:07. Watt did almost all the attacking, and it wasn't as if Gordeau was looking to counter. Gordeau seemed to have no confidence in his abilities, just laying back and trying to defend. His only offense, if one can call it that, was trying to tie Watt up and muscle him into an advantageous position, though apparently he never succeeded as he didn't get to the point where he actually threw some strikes. Gordeau took a few wicked urakens. Fair.
K-1 Network Ranking Match: Changpuek Kiatsongrit vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa 5R. Slow start as Atokawa defended first, doing a good enough job of it to largely nulify the action. Initially Atokawa would block then occasionally land a weak counter. Kiatsongrit had the bad habit of throwing middle kicks right into Atokawa's block rather than low kicks which would have been more likely to land, and certainly would have helped open up other quadrants. Kiatsongrit got himself into trouble early in R4, slipping then getting hit when he got back up. He tried to turn it up at this point, but wound up landing his usual assortment of low blows that hurt him on the scorecards. Kiatsongrit finally got a hold of Atokawa and started kneeing him on the inside then throwing him down. Atokawa opened up, landing a few good punches, but was generally pretty wild. Kiatsongrit hurt himself by starting so slowly, but when he finally showed up in the final two rounds he was able to control the fight with his clinch. Pretty good.
Peter Aerts vs. Dino Homesy 1R 1:36. Aerts landed a left high kick to the right side of Homesy's neck for the spectacular early KO.
WMTA & WKA World Lightweight Double Title Match: Ernesto Hoost vs. Tass "Toska" Petros 3R 0:45. Toska seemed off balance early, lunging and reaching. His footwork wasn't very good, and he presented a stationary target. Hoost didn't seem to feel threatened by Petros, countering while figuring out how to time Toska's attacks. Petros was the aggressor, but he came straight in time after time. Hoost's knock down of Petros was extremely impressive; a knee to the chin out of nowhere while leaning against the ropes.
UKF World Heavyweight & WKA World Super Heavyweight Double Title Unification Match: Masaaki Satake vs. Stan The Man 5R. As good a performance as I've seen from Satake; his combinations were sharp, going from high to low so he'd probably at least land one. Stan had a good left jab, but that was about all he was landing. He was more active, but Satake was by far the more powerful striker, and he simply wore The Man down. Satake had good success with quick low kicks as part of a combinations. Stan was cut on the top of the head and his left leg was welted from inside leg kicks. Fans were psyched in the 5th round, as they could see their hero was nearing victory. Good fight.
Highlights of Yoshinori Arata vs. Keisuke Nakagawa & Atsushi Tamaki vs. Eiji Matsumoto qualifying matches
'93 Karate World Cup 1st Round
Andy Hug vs. Yoshinori Arata. Arata walked right into a spinning savate at the bell. Hug forced Arata to defend the body with a combination of straight punches thenb put him out with a left high kick.
Shin Ushikoshi vs. Changpuek Kiatsongrit. Kiatsongrit is an intimidating fighter with an intense no nonsense demeanor that turns to a disdainful "I'm gonna put a hole right through you" expression as he uncoils a powerful high speed strike. Kiatsongrit grabbed Ushikoshi and knocked him off his feat repeatedly.
Toshiyuki Atokawa vs. Gerard Gordeau. Gordeau showed improvement over his 9/4/93 bout, actually throwing some strikes this time. Too bad most of them were illegal! Atokawa didn't do that much, but Gordeau lost points for cheating.
Sam Greco vs. Minoru Fujita. Greco had a big height advantage and was a also a much better fighter on the inside. When Fujita was at a distance Greco would just back away from his blows, still within his own striking distance. When Fujita came inside, Greco would unload body combos.
Masaaki Satake vs. Patrick Smith. Satake hurt Smith badly with a short right to the body, though perhaps he caught Smith's hand as he was shaking it repeatedly.
Adam Watt vs. David Pickthall. Watt put a hurting on Pickthall, particularly with big knees that bloodies his mouth.
Michael Thompson vs. Nobuaki Kakuda. Rematch from 6/25/93 when Thompson KO'd Kakuda with a spinning savate followed by a high kick. Kakuda didn't fair any better this time, falling pray to an amazing spinning high kick KO. Kakuda was nearly stretched out, but called it off and made it to the back on his own. Kakuda retired later in the show.
Taiei Kin vs. Atsushi Tamaki. Kin had his way simply by holding Tamaki's gi and kneeing him.
Quarterfinals
Andy Hug vs. Changpuek Kiatsongrit. Arguably the two best fighters, certainly the best match. Kiatsongrit is great at catching his opponent's leg and knocking them down by kicking the other leg out. Hug also caught several of Kiatsongrit's kicks. Kiatsongrit did his best damage with two punches to the face, unfortunately for him they are illegal in karate rules. Hug returned the favor with an illegal knee when Kiatsongrit was down. Intense back and forth match that could have gone either way. Very good.
Sam Greco vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa. Both picked their spots and defended well. Greco threw a spinning high kick that just missed Atokawa's head. His best shot was a spinning savate that propelled Atokawa back. Still, neither were overly successful, so it went two overtimes.
Masaaki Satake vs. Adam Watt. Close 2OT match. Neither were overly successful, but Watt was certainly more active. Watt was particularly aggressive in the second OT, which normally gets you the decision in a close fight. I can't say he beat Satake, but Satake certainly didn't do anything to warrant that round.
Taiei Kin vs. Michael Thompson. Kin is a very good defensive fighter. Thompson kept trying to set him up, but Kin would avoid the eventual strike. Thompson didn't connect with his spinning high kick, but took Kin down with the follow through. Very close two overtime match. Thompson had some success toward the end by fighting inside, including a headlock takedown. I thought Thompson won, as though Kin didn't get hurt he lacked any actual offense.
Semifinals
Andy Hug vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa. Hug caught Atokawa in the nose with a thrust kick and put him down with a spinning leg sweep. Atokawa wasn't overwhelmed, he was only caught with a few good shots, but had very little offense.
Masaaki Satake vs. Taiei Kin. Good showing by Satake repeatedly blocking Kin then landing his counter attack.
Final: Andy Hug vs. Masaaki Satake. Hug had an excellent combination of flexibility and agility that allowed him to kick on the move. He could come up high for a front or axe kick and follow with something else. Match was as close as it gets. When there was no winner after 2 OT's they switched to a glove match. Hug landed his patented kakato otoshi, but couldn't take Satake out with it. When it was still even after two gloved rounds they broke bricks to decide the winner. I'm certainly no purist, but this is even worse than deciding a hockey game by a shootout, as at least there you still have to beat the other teams goalie.
K-2 GRAND PRIX '93 1st Round
Ernesto Hoost vs. Manson Gibson. Gibson gave Hoost a tough fight. The scoring was really weird because Hoost dictated the fight in regulation, although Gibson's defense was such that Hoost didn't do much damage. I couldn't really say Hoost beat Gibson, but I think he controlled the fight enough to get the decision. The judges called it even and sent it to overtime where Gibson had his best round yet 2/3 judges now gave the round to Hoost. Really good.
Bob Zenqifo vs. Adam Watt
Changpuek Kiatsongrit vs. Rob Kaman. Both guys threw nothing but power blows. Round 2 had some excellent exchanges. Definite quality.
Tass "Tosca" Petridis vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa
Special Match Women's Fight: Lucia Rijker vs. Yoriko Okamoto. Okamoto made these evil stares, but that was about it for her "offense." Rijker pummelled her continually. To Okamoto's credit, there was no quit in her, but she was totally outclassed. After a while you were hoping the ref would just stop it before she really hurt herself.
K-2 Semifinals
Ernesto Hoost vs. Adam Watt. Hoost was sharper here and his opponent wasn't as tough. It appeared that Watt lost because he didn't know you had to be up by 4 in the first two rounds on a knockdown, but Hoost would have won sooner or later anyway.
Tass "Tosca" Petridis vs. Changpuek Kiatsongrit. Good close fight.
Special Match: Andy Hug vs. Eric Albert
K.I.C.K. Super Heavyweight & I.S.K.A. Heavyweight Double World Title Decision Match: Masaaki Satake vs. Jeff Hollins. Satake looked good here, particularly with his punches.
K-2 Final: Ernesto Hoost vs. Changpuek Kiatsongrit. These were the two best fighters in the tournament, and they had a really good technical fight. Hoost was more accurate here, which made a big difference since he definitely has the power advantage. He was able to fight his style. Kiatsongrit was good, but Hoost fought a great fight. Excellent match.